Validating HQL against the domain with Castle Active Record - nhibernate

We use a lot of view model builders which pass HQL strings to the ActiveRecordMediator.Execute method to populate search objects for our views.
Doing refactoring occassionally breaks these 'magic' hql strings (without us knowing)
I was wondering if anyone has tried using nhibernate named queries to validate HQL in Castle Active Record?
Is there another way rather than writing integration tests (we use LINQ to Nhibernate for basic searchs but its not quite there yet for our complex queries)
Anyone have suggestions how to validate HQL against your domain?

ActiveRecord supports named queries through the HqlNamedQuery attribute, see this article. By defining queries this way you get NHibernate's named query validation.

Related

Pros and Cons of Hibernate

In my Project iam about to use Hibernate but one create confusion is:
That I Read somewhere:
Hibernate has its own query language, i.e hibernate query language which is database independent
So if we change the database, then also our application will works as HQL is database independent
HQL contains database independent commands
Does it means that we dont have to write stored proceedure and views while using Hibernate in java?
Short answer: You dont have to write any query and/or stored procedure. (Also you can hibernate tell to create/update all required tables for you, during application start.)
Long answer: Hibernate can be used without any manual definition of a query. (Using the EntityManager, you can simple tell hibernate to get everything of user.class from the database.) However it does support HQL as well as SQL-Queries, also.
SQL Queries of course will stop to work, when you switch to another database later on. HQL will work for every Database, because hibernate is able to translate HQL Queries to any (of the supported) Database Languages.
But be aware: In my Opinion Hibernate is damn slow if you let hibernate do all the work. (Hibernate fires a LOT of single Select Queries, when loading entities with complex relations)

Is there any framework for parsing a SQL-like query into its component parts?

I'm interested in writing a SQL-like query syntax for a CMS I work with. The idea would be that a CMS query could be written in a SQL-ish syntax, and I would convert that to execute through the CMS API.
There would be no field or table selection, so I need some way to get from this:
SELECT WHERE Something = 'something' AND (SomethingElse != 'something' OR AnotherThing == 'something')
Essentially then, I need some way to get the WHERE clauses grouped correctly based on their parentheticals and AND/ORs.
Is there some framework for doing this? Some example of when it's been done? I don't want to re-invent the wheel here, and I know someone else has to have done this in the past.
The answer is yes, there are many frameworks that work in an analog of SQL and convert to SQL. Linq and various Linq translators are a prime example. Knowing exactly which CMS you're working with, and thus which language and platform you're developing in, would be helpful. Some .NET ORMs that support code queries are:
NHibernate - allows use of a SQL-ish language called HQL in strings, or more code-based query construction using expression lists and Linq.
Linq2SQL - On its way out, but for your simpler applications it should be fine. The framework generates DAO classes that map between tables and your domain objects, and you can use coded Linq queries to work with the classes very much like the real tables.
And of course you can use good ol' vanilla ADO.NET with a string SQL query. This has numerous drawbacks, but if you want to have queries in your code, why not make them real SQL? If you wanted to hide your table structure, you could translate table names before submitting queries, so the SQL contained at the web layer (shudder) won't run against your DB.

SQL Injection with Plain-Vanilla NHibernate

Plain-vanilla NHibernate setup, eg, no fluent NHibernate, no HQL, nothing except domain objects and NHibernate mapping files. I load objects via:
_lightSabers = session.CreateCriteria(typeof(LightSaber)).List<LightSaber>();
I apply raw user input directly to one property on the "LightSaber" class:
myLightSaber.NameTag = "Raw malicious text from user";
I then save the LightSaber:
session.SaveOrUpdate(myLightSaber);
Everything I've seen says that yes, under this situation you are immune to SQL injection, because of the way NHibernate parameterizes and escapes the queries under the hood. However, I'm also a relative NHibernate beginner so I wanted to double-check.
Thanks!
Yes, you're almost immune to SQL injection when using NHibernate. It uses parameterized queries for all generated SQL statements on all platforms that support these.
You can, however, circumvent this by using custom SQL for insertions/updates, or by executing SQL with a variation of execute_sql of some sort, or SQL Queries without parameters.
You're safe as long as you don't plug user input directly into HQL or SQL: nothing else (of the functionality hibernate provides) will allow users to inject malicious code.
Just to echo others, if you let NHibernate generate your SQL you're safe, at least in theory.
However, you still need to be careful with stored procedures, triggers, and functions in the database particularly with dynamic SQL. Even though the client uses parametrized queries everywhere, injection may still possible.

What will be the benefits of NHibernate in a data retrieval only scenario?

We have been suggested to use NHibernate for our project. But the point is our application will only be retrieving the data from the database so are there any benefits of using NHibernate in this scenario?
One more thing, what is the query execution plan in NHIbernate does it support something like prepared statements or the so called pre complied statements.?
I agree to the answers above, but there is one more reason for using nhibernate: Your completely independend of the underlaying database system. You can switch from mysql to oracle and the only thing you have to do, is to change the settings. the access to the database stays exactly the same.
NHibernate is useful is you need to map data from a database table into a .NET class. Even if you're only doing select queries, it still might be useful if you need to pass the data objects to a client tier (web page, desktop app, etc.) for display. Working with plain objects can be easier than working with a DataSet or other ADO.NET data class in a presentation layer.
NHibernate does have the ability to parse/pre-compile queries if you put them in the mapping file.
The benefit for using NHibernate in a read only scenario is that you would not need to map the results of queries back to .net objects as the runtime would do this for you. Also, it provides a more object oriented query syntax (you can also use LINQ), and you can take advantage of lazy loading.
I don't believe NHibernate can use prepared statements unless you are having it call stored procedures.

Help me choose between linq to sql and nhibernate based on the following

Struggling between choosing linq2sql and nhibernate.
Let me give you some insight in the application in point form:
this is a asp.net mvc application
it will have lots of tables, maybe 50-60 (sql server 2008)
i would want all the basic crud logic done for me (which I think nhiberate + repository pattern can give me)
i don't have too complicated mappings, my tables will look something like:
User(userID, username)
UserProfile(userID, ...)
Content(contentID, title, body, date)
Content_User(contentID, userID)
So in general, I will have a PK table, then lots of other tables that reference that PK (i.e. FK tables).
I will also have lots of mapping tables, that will contain PK, FK pairs.
Entity wise, I want User.cs, UserProfile.cs and then a way to load each object.
I am not looking for a User class that has a UserProfile property, and a Content Collection property (there will be maybe 10-20 tables that will related to the user, I just like to keep things linear if that makes sense).
The one thing that makes me learn towards nhibernate is: cross db potential, and the repository pattern that will give me basic db operations accross all my main tables almost instantly!
Since you seem to have a quite straight forward mapping from class to table in mind Linq to SQL should do the trick, without any difficulties. That would let you get started very quickly, without the initial work of mapping the domain manually to the database.
An alternative could be using NHibernate + Fluent NHibernate and its AutoMapping feature, but keep in mind that the Fluent NHibernate AutoMapping is still quite young.
I'm not quite sure I understand what you want your entities to look like, but with Linq to SQL you will get a big generated mess, which you then could extend by using partial classes. NHibernate lets you design you classes however you want and doesn't generate anything for you out of the box. You could kind of use POCO classes with Linq to SQL but that would take away all the benefits of using Linq to SQL rather than NHibernate.
Concerning the repository pattern, and the use of a generic repository, that can be done quite nicely with Linq to SQL as well, and not only with NHibernate. In my opinion that is one of the nice things about Linq to SQL.
If you probably will need support for other databases than SQL Server, NHibernate is the only choice. However, if it probably won't be an issue I would recommend not using that as the primary factor when choosing. The other factors will probably influence your project more.
Conclusion:
All in all, I would recomment Linq to SQL, in this case, since it would let you get started quickly and is sufficient for your needs. The precondition for that is that you don't have a problem with the thought of having generated, messy code in your domain, and that you are quite sure there will not be any need to support other databases in the future. Otherwise I would recommend NHibernate, since it is truly an awesome ORM.
linq2sql really wants you to work with 1 table per class mapping. So if you have a UserMaster and a UserDetail table, you are looking at two objects when using default linq object generation. You can get around that by mapping linq entities to business entities (see Rob Conery's storefront screencasts), but then you are back to writing object mapping code or using something like Automapper.
If you want to be able to split your classes across multiple tables, then I'd say go with NHibernate. If not, then linq has a lower learning curve.
The only way I'd ever use nHibernate in through Castle Project's ActiveRecord library. Otherwise, nHibernate becomes its own little infrastructure project. Check out some questions in the nHibernate tag to see what I'm talking about.
The only thing I might change about AR is to return results of SELECT operations as List instead of T[]. Of course, with the source code in C# I can do that if I want.
With ActiveRecord, the mapping information is saved in attributes you decorate your classes with. It's genius and I am a huge proponent of the pattern and this particular library.